This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Use Your Sick Days Wisely

There’s plenty of good stuff to do this week, starting with a Felix Gonzalez-Torres book launch reception at the Whitney Monday night. Carla Gannis has a book launch of her own Tuesday night at the Pratt library, including augmented-reality elements. The rest of the week is dominated by painting and digital art—exemplified by Michael William’s solo show of digitally-produced paintings at Gladstone and Jason Lahr’s digitally-informed paintings at the Painting Center, both of which open Thursday night. For digital purists, check out Low Res: Spatial Politics in the Cloud at NARS Foundation’s Sunset Park digs Friday night. For painting purists, catch Rebecca Leveille’s brushy portraits at Site:Brooklyn. Fans of both media will be relieved to note they’re but a few subway stops away. End the week with FIN’s ICE PIX album release party on Sunday in Bushwick, which features performances from rising stars such as FlucT and Raul de Nieves. Your Monday hangover will be so worth it.

Mon

Whitney Museum of American Art

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Specific Objects Without Specific Form Book Launch

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how prescient FGT’s work feels to our current political discourse. Maybe that’s because it’s always been about change? Curator Elena Filipovic will be discussing her own groundbreaking work on the late artist’s posthumous exhibitions, which each adapted to new contexts and the work of other artists and curators. The book features loads of installation shots, and is likely beautiful.

Tue

Pratt Institute Library |

Carla Gannis: Selfie Drawings Artist Book Project

Carla Gannis’s new publication represents a year’s worth of digital selfies. Each has been enhanced with an augmented reality experience, so come prepared with Blippar on your phone. Hovering over one or another illustration, the viewer will be treated to a multimedia surprise…my curiosity is piqued.

Swiss Institute

Christina Forrer: Grappling Hold

Zurich-born artist Christina Forrer’s politically-charged tapestries are chock full of references to 20th Century European textile art history, and the artists and craftspeople who responded to fascism. The chaotic, sometimes violent, acid-hued works also bring to mind punk illustrations. They’re weird and wonderful.

Wed

International Center for Photography

Nationalism, Networks, Borders: Refugees in Visual Culture and Social Media

One of the most urgent and timely sections of the ICP’s epic exhibition Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change is The Flood: Refugees and Representation, which looks at how social media and the ease of sharing images affects the global conversation about the European refugee crises. Curator Joanna Lehan will discuss the tricky topic with Carne Ross (founder and executive director of the Independent Diplomat), and featured artist Tomas van Houtryve.

Thu

Gladstone Gallery

Michael Williams

Michael Williams is one of the few artists who has managed to make digital paintings that one can appreciate like paintings. Somewhat ironically, they feel more like good David Hockney paintings than Hockney’s own forays into digital art. They have a lovely balance of impulsivity and a sense of design—a quality that’s hard to achieve with physical paint, but oddly elusive in digital processes as well. This is William’s first East Coast show with Gladstone, and here the prints will be bigger than ever. I’ve never seen these works in person, so it should be interesting to see how they translate to a larger, physical scale.

The Painting Center

Jason Lahr: Electric Funeral

Jason Lahr’s technicolor paintings feel a bit like guilty pleasures. That might be because their content is sourced from some of pop culture’s most base vices—video games, action films, and just a bit of the internet’s endless churn of pulp critical theory. His graphic, shaped canvasses are inspired by the intersection of class and toxic masculinity. A timely topic indeed.

Fri

EFA Project Space

Sick Time, Sleepy Time, Crip Time: Against Capitalism’s Temporal Bullying

“Exhausted” has become on the most common responses to “how are you?”, especially since the election. There’s been a lot (but probably not enough) discussion about the effect of recent stress on productivity and mental health. But beyond the news cycle, that perpetual state of fatigue probably lies in the failures of our societal structures.

Curator Taraneh Fazeli posits that “rest” is an act of resistance to late capitalism. What’s one sick day when you’re sick of it all? The event description claims “we are all united by the fact that we will experience fluctuating states of debility throughout the course of our lives. Furthermore, so many of us are exhausted from living and working in a capitalist system while insufficient infrastructures for care have further deteriorated. “

The artists here, including AFC fav Sondra Perry, comment on this shortcoming, or propose alternate models for recuperation. These include satellite programs in Texas, where the social net is even more frayed than in neoliberal states. This looks to be one of the week’s most promising shows for discourse-sparking.

NARS Foundation

Low Res: Spatial Politics in the Cloud

Curators Nicole Siegenthaler and Alvaro Luis Lima (winners of the 2016 NARS Emerging Curator Program Open Call) have turned their attention to the spatial politics of the web. Namely, what do artist-made online spaces look like in the age of corporate sanitization and intersectional identity politics?

The show includes work from Dan Halter, Faith Holland, Devin Kenny, Paula Nacif, Tabita Rezaire and Nicolas Sasson. We’re expecting a little conceptual overlap with our own online exhibition Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies: The Animated GIF as Place. Here, though, Siegenthaler and Lima are focusing on works with a nostalgia for web 2.0 aesthetics.

Site:Brooklyn

Rebecca Leveille: Crush

Rebecca Leveille’s handling of paint is gorgeous. In this series, she applies those skills to the topic of a “crush”. According to the show’s description, that can manifest as both attraction and a feeling of being overwhelmed.

Sat

Equity Gallery

Artist Workshop: Writing and Editing Artist Statements 101

I write this recommendation in the middle of a day spent scanning untold events listings: every artist (and curator, gallerist, etc…) should attend this writing and editing workshop. Mastering the ability to write about art in a clear and accessible manner is just as important as the ideas themselves. It’s impossible to get people to come to an exhibition without this skill.

The event is free, and led by Shama Rahman, Senior Marketing Coordinator at the Whitney. Professional advice doesn’t get much more “pro” than that.

RSVP: info@nyartistsequity.org

Gitler & _____

Susan Carr: Headspace

Susan Carr’s clunky impasto paintings undeniably charm viewers. They give an impression of speed that’s counterintuitive to their obviously built-up surfaces, and that tension satisfies. Here, it looks like this new body of work incorporates more 3-D sculptural forms inserted in the paint. One gets the impression these should definitely be seen IRL. They’re worth a trip far uptown.

Sun

ICE PIX USA

One of our favorite things about all of our weirdo friends is the breadth of stuff they do. At this event, for example, we’re looking forward to listening to music by visual artists and watching performance art by musicians. We assume there will be more stretching of the disciplines over the evening.

This event is the release party for artist FIN’s new album ICE PIX, and undoubtedly the most fun thing happening Sunday night.